Most motor vehicles are manually steered by an operator through application of steering effort to a steering hand wheel rigidly attached to the top of a steering shaft rotatably supported on a steering column of the motor vehicle. The steering hand wheel usually has a rim where the wheel is gripped by the operator, a metal spider where the wheel is attached to the steering shaft, and a plurality of spokes between the rim and the spider. In many applications, a urethane foam cover is molded over the rim, the spokes, and the spider. Typically, the rim is a metal rod shaped into a ring, the spider is made by a die casting process or by metal stamping, and the spokes are welded or clamped to the spider or encapsulated by portions of the spider die cast directly around the spokes. In some prior steering hand wheels, the spokes and/or the spider are shaped to absorb energy by deforming plastically upon impact and converting into work a fraction of the kinetic energy of the impact. In other proposed steering hand wheels, reinforced plastic spokes and a reinforced plastic rim are rigidly connected by various attachment techniques to a die cast or stamped metal spider. A method according to this invention of making a steering hand wheel for a motor vehicle is a novel alternative to the methods referred to above.